On two sides of the island, toys were finding their way to the hands of needy families on Saturday.
In Kailua-Kona, what has been dubbed a “Toy and Joy Shop” sprang up for just a handful of hours adjacent to the Salvation Army Thrift Store on Kaiwi Street. Excited kids waited in chairs out front while parents went in back to select gifts for the keiki.
A similar distribution of free toys was happening in Hilo, said Salvation Army Lt. Jessica Stack.
There were three free gifts per child, and the store was set to receive 100 pre-screen families from Ocean View to Waikoloa.
The toys were donated by community members through the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program and numerous toy drives. Families whose earnings are below the poverty line were given a half hour to shop, then presented with $15 gift cards from Sack N Save as they exited.
The toy store idea is a new concept this year. Previously, the Salvation Army bagged the gifts and let the parents pick them up. But the system lacked the flexibility of true shopping, said Stack. Sometimes the bicycles didn’t match the size of the child to whom they were gifted. Other times the gift wasn’t quite what the child wanted.
Under the old system, there wouldn’t have been a chance to choose, for instance, the Barbie Dream House. The doll mansion complete with furniture was the first item out the door during the four-hour Saturday giveaway.
Marichu Hoponoa of Kailua-Kona had six children to shop for, ages 2 through 10. Her selections included a Hello Kitty bicycle with training wheels, a scooter and a skateboard.
Hoponoa said she loved the new format and the helpful staff of volunteers on hand.
“It’s better that you can pick your own and get what your kid really wants,” she said.
Hoponoa still had to find two more bicycles that day to make her brood happy.
The bicycles were hot items, said the Salvation Army’s Lt. Michael Stack. As the bikes went briskly out the door with smiling parents, more of those items waited upstairs.
“We have a pretty good amount, but we have to stagger them so there’s enough,” he said.
Cynthia Matsumoto was one of a dozen Target employees to help staff the gift shop.
“It’s rewarding to see the joy it brings to the kids,” she said.
Target donated the bins and employees helped set up the shop over the past couple of weeks, said Fran Richardson, human resource manager at Target.
“This is the first year we’ve been helping them out. The team just loved it,” she said. “If it’s a big success we’ll continue it next year.”
